One theory:
What is little known is that the "Sorrow Music" commonly used in funeral ceremonies in our country was adapted by Liu Chi and others from the "Wind" played by the suona of northern Shaanxi folk music. It evolved from "Fengling". The music was reviewed by the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China in September 1949 and was officially approved as music for ceremonies.
Liu Chi (1921-1998): a folk drum composer
When mentioning the movie "Shangganling", people will immediately think of the vast song "My Motherland". "Heroic Sons and Daughters" can't help but sing "Beacon Smoke Rolling Sings Heroes". Compared with these passionate songs, the interlude of the movie "Flowers of the Motherland" will definitely make the audiences who were young in their youth throb, "Let us row the oars, The boat pushes away the waves." It was Liu Chi who composed the music for these songs.
Liu Chi is from Shaanxi. When he was young, he went to the temple to learn drumming from folk artists, which laid a solid foundation of national music for his future music creation. In 1939, he entered Yan'an Luyi School to study composition and conducting under Xian Xinghai. During the War of Liberation, he carried out many music activities in the Northeast, founded a music school and the Xinghai Chorus, and trained a large number of music workers for the upcoming new China. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, he was transferred to the Opera Troupe of the Central Academy of Drama in Beijing as a composer. In 1961, he was transferred to the Liaoning Opera House as the deputy director and director of the Art Committee. Since the publication of his debut work "Northern Shaanxi Love Song" in 1939, he has created more than 70 large-scale works and nearly a thousand small and medium-sized works. The large number, high quality and long-lasting popularity of his works are rare among contemporary musicians.
People from northern Shaanxi have a straightforward personality, and they show great joy and sorrow in everything they do! There is nothing more joyful than "The Great Formation", and nothing more sad than "The Pink Lotus" that moves the face.
The sad music we use in formal occasions today also originated from the folk music of northern Shaanxi. In the spring of 1942, music workers Liu Chi, Zhang Lu and others from Yan'an Lu Xun Academy of Arts and Letters went to Mizhi County to seek advice from suona artist Chang Wenqing, and received an unexpected harvest. Chang Wenqing taught them music such as "General's Order", "Large Formation" and "Pink Lotus". In 1943, Liu Chi, Zhang Lu and others processed and adapted the deep and tragic "Pink Lotus" into a sad music performed by a variety of folk music. In 1956, in the music creation of the movie "Shangganling", Liu Chi once again processed "Pink Lotus" into a memorial music with a double orchestra and amplified gongs. Later, there was the "Sorrow and Music" that is commonly used in my country.
Classic works: Composed music for films such as "Shangganling", "Heroic Sons and Daughters", and "Flowers of the Motherland".
Another way of saying it:
In 1936, the Chinese Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army established a foothold in the revolutionary base area of ??northern Shaanxi. But in this year, Comrade Liu Zhidan, an important founder of the revolutionary base in northern Shaanxi, unfortunately died gloriously in a battle. At that time, Comrade Mao Zedong, Chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, was in grief and gave the literary and art workers in the border area an important task: to quickly compose a piece of funeral music for the upcoming memorial service for Comrade Liu Zhidan. Therefore, the "People's Artist" Ma Ke (1918-1976), a modern Chinese composer with world-renowned reputation, whose representative works are the mass songs "Nanniwan", "We Workers Have Power", and the compositions created under his leadership in Yan'an The Yan'an music workers, who were mainly gay (opera "The White-Haired Girl" etc.) quickly collected materials and soon reached an agreement. The creative team finally combined the main melody of two northern Shaanxi folk songs "Embroidered Purse" and "Pearl Curtain", modified it slightly, and lowered the speed to "extremely slow" to become a sad and moving wind music piece. This is how it has always been. The "sad music" that is still used today. It can be seen that the first deceased friend remembered in this song is undoubtedly Comrade Liu Zhidan.
Ma Ke (1918-1976) was born in Xuzhou, Jiangsu. He studied in the Chemistry Department of Henan University, and later, under the inspiration and guidance of Xian Xinghai, he joined the third touring drama team of the Henan Anti-Enemy Support Association. He arrived in Yan'an in 1939 and worked and studied in the music troupe of Lu Xun Art Institute. He received guidance from Xian Xinghai, Lu Ji and others, and recorded and sorted out a large number of ethnic materials. Later, he engaged in music activities in the Northeast Liberated Area. After liberation, he served as the vice president of the China Conservatory of Music.
He wrote more than 200 musical works in his life, including the songs "Nanniwan", "We Are Democratic Youth", "We Workers Have Power", "Luliang Mountain Cantata", the Yangzhou opera "Couple Literacy" and the opera " "Zhou Zishan" (collaborated with Zhang Lu and Liu Chi), "White-Haired Girl" (collaborated with Qu Wei, Zhang Lu, Xiang Yu, etc.), "Xiao Erhei's Marriage", orchestral music "Northern Shaanxi Suite", etc. are the most widely circulated.
In terms of music theory research, in addition to special research on Xian Xinghai and authoring "The Biography of Xian Xinghai", it also involves the development of new operas, opera music reform, revolutionary music traditions and mass music life, etc. He has also written books such as "Talks on Chinese Folk Music", "Discussions on Songs of the Times" and more than 200 papers. He made important contributions in song creation, opera creation, and music theory, leaving a rich legacy for people. In 1978, some of his songs were compiled into "Selected Songs of Marco" and published. "Sorrow", which was composed collectively under his leadership, is now the most formal song for wedding ceremonies in China.
The third theory:
The author of China's "Sorrow and Music" ("West China Metropolis Daily" 00/5/22)
"Sorrow and Music" is the author of the General Political Luo Lang, the first leader of the military band, adapted it from a folk wind and percussion tune in the north. Luo Lang is 77 years old this year. He has adapted and composed the famous "March of the People's Liberation Army", "Three Major Disciplines and Eight Points of Attention", and "The East is Red". "Sorrow" is one of his most influential and outstanding works.
Luo Lang said that when he saw the bodies of the martyrs who died still maintaining a fighting posture, he felt that mourning was not just mourning, but should also express the emotion of remembering and remembering the heroes' great achievements, so when he created it, he wrote in E flat On the basis of the minor key, the technique of temporarily switching to a major key is used at the strongest point of the whole song, making the tune passionate and resolute after sobbing and crying.
"Mourning Music" was first performed in 1945 at a ceremony in Zhangjiakou to commemorate the martyrs who had forgotten the battlefield; in 1949, the foundation laying ceremony of the People's Heroes Monument was held in Tiananmen Square, and it was officially approved by the central government as national funeral music. After Stalin passed away in 1953, "Sorrow" was played on the Central People's Broadcasting Station for the first time.